MANILA - Just weeks after the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) downplayed the exit of some of its top officials, another one left.

Lawyer Joseph San Pedro left his post as PSE vice president and head of Market Regulation Department (MRD) Thursday, October 1, the regulator said in a disclosure.

He is the second official to leave the stock exchange by end-September, and already the fourth key official to leave this year.

San Pedro's departure came weeks after Conchita Manabat, head of the PSE's Market Integrity Board (MIB)—the body which oversees the MRD—resigned.

The PSE disclosure did not specify why San Pedro was leaving, but its president and chief executive Francis Lim said in a text message to reporters that this was due to conflict with some brokers.

"Atty. San Pedro performed his task as head of our MRD in a manner he deemed best as professional. It is unfortunate that there was some disagreement with some of the brokers along the way," said Lim.

"In the end, it was deemed best for him and the exchange to part ways as smoothly as possible. I know him to be a very capable lawyer. I personally wish him well as he embarks on another chapter," he added.

According to abs-cbnNEWS.com sources, the PSE will be buying out San Pedro's contract for an amount equivalent to 3 months of every year of his service.

Before joining the PSE in May 2007, San Pedro served as head of the Legal Services Division of Yuchengco-owned Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., head of the Corporate Legal Department of Lapanday Foods Corp., and partner in the law firm of Castillo Zamora & Poblador.

He is currently a professor at Ateneo De Manila University's College of Law.

List of erring brokers

San Pedro's departure also came more than a month after his department named and shamed brokerage firms which were penalized by the exchange for violations of the Securities and Regulation Code as well as the bourse's rules and regulations.

An uncommon practice, the list of erring brokers was published in the PSE's website in accordance with the regulator's objective "to provide timely information to the public" regarding the results of the audit of all trading participants, which is conducted yearly.

Violations of the brokers—ranging from simple to serious ones—merited penalities of up to P140,000.

Following the release of the MRD's findings, even before San Pedro left, was the resignation of Manabat, who served as chairwoman of the MIB since 2008.

The MIB is an autonomous regulatory body under the PSE board. It oversees the MRD, which has the line function of policing the activities of traders and listed companies, and makes sure they adhere to the rules and code of conduct of the PSE and to all related regulatory requirements.

The MIB affirms, and could reverse or modify, decisions made by the MRD. The MIB's decisions, in turn, can be overturned by the PSE board.

Sources intimately familiar with the goings-on at the PSE said that the published list of erring brokers led to brushes between some members of the PSE board and the MIB. This was because some of those in the list were also in the board.

However, Lim denied that this was the reason for Manabat's resignation. He reiterated that Manabat resigned due "solely" to her "desire to limit her multiple roles in several institutions."

Other key officials

San Pedro and Manabat were not the only high-ranking PSE officials who left their posts this year.

Roy Joseph Rafols, PSE's chief operating officer and second-in-command to Lim, left when the the board decided not to renew his contract with the exchange. He was the head of the Issuer Regulation Division.

Several months ago, Pete Malabanan, who headed the PSE's Disclosure Department, retired.

Both the Issuer Regulation Division and the Disclosure Department are responsible for going after listed companies violating disclosure rules.

In January, Malabanan and Rafols threatened to sanction diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. for failing to disclose more information about a deal involving its purchase of a majority stake in Petron Corp. They even wrote a show-cause letter to the conglomerate.

According to an earlier BusinessWorld report, Lim told reporters that the show-cause letter had been overridden by the PSE board.